donellda

I am very sorry for your loss.

It is with immense regret that I have to say that I learned yesterday that Dr Patricia Tippett died at the age of 93 on 1st August 2023.

I first met Pat in the early 1970's, when I was a callow youth who had just left school and was working at the IBGRL when it was in Gatliff Road in London (when Dr Kenneth Goldsmith was the Director) and Pat was working in the opposite building in the MRC Blood Group Unit, then under Drs Rob Race and Ruth Sanger.

Pat is probably most famous for her work on the Rh Blood Group System, including categorising the then know Partial D types and for realising that the RH genes were twofold; namely RHD and RHCE.
She was. of course, one of the greats, but was as friendly to this callow youth as I started out in the profession, as she was to everyone who were already greats within the field.

May she rest in peace.

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The back cardboard copy of the computer generated bag tag with the patient and unit information is attached to the unit at the time of issue. 

Thank you Malcolm!

Happy Birthday from someone else!

Do you have a company come in to service them? If so, they might be able to help you.  It's possible that the company was bought out by a bigger one like Fisher Scientific. I am retired so I don't have contacts anymore.

Very sad news. May he rest in peace

Welcome!
I retired at the end of 2020.  I spent my last 25 years of my career working primarily in blood bank, including some time at an IRL. I always loved antibody ID.

If you have enough of the unit left, you could use blood culture vials along with an initial gram stain.

I had the ENORMOUS honour of lecturing on a course with Sue in Cressier in Switzerland in 2015, and I can assure everyone that she is a consummate lecturer, who has the ability to get across the most difficult subjects, and make them fully understandable to even the most junior of staff.

Happy Birthday!

I always recommend following the manufacturers' instructions.
One item I believe is in there is to change the drain port annually.  I suggest you do this otherwise, it may get stuck in there and hard to change. 

Yes, it is. It is actually because the transport temperature for whole blood, RBCs, and plasma is 1 to 10 degrees celsius.  After 30 minutes, the internal temperature of the units go above 10 degrees which may promote bacterial growth.  Basic 30 minute rule is that if the unit is outside of a controlled temperature for 30 minutes or more, it must be discarded. 

I missed this. It was during my granddaughter's illness. Congratulations Malcolm!

marketlab.com has been a staple for lab supplies for as long as I can remember

Thanks, but we are trying to avoid using liquid nitrogen.  We are a small blood bank and do not have the space for this type of system and also not enough rare cells to accommodate the cost.  

Happy Birthday!

Man you got me good, started searching for anti-O and anti-Q and thought that I missed something big  It's cool, no hard feelings! 
Anti-P sounds much more familiar. 
That's why we don't do DL test ourselves, we don't have time for it.

I was joking about the specificity being between "anti-O" and "anti-Q", in that anti-P, the specificity almost always involved in a case of PCH is a "cold-reacting" IgG anti-P that "fixes" complement (and P is between "O" and "Q" in the Western alphabet).  A pretty poor attempt at a joke, I fully admit!

While I am not saying definitely that it is a case of PCH, the fact that the patient has a suspected AIHA, that the auto-antibody appears to be "cold-reacting", that it is IgG and that it also involves activated complement, strongly suggests that this may be the line to go down as an investigation.

We didn't perform a DL test routinely by any manner of means (despite being a London based Red Cell Immunohaematology Laboratory).  It was always discussed between our own Consultant (or, at night, weekends or Bank Holidays) by the on-call Consultant, but all of the staff knew how to perform the test, even if they were a lone worker.  We always used to dread being asked to perform such a test as a lone worker, as it took so long to do!

I have an idea of what I think it might be, but I would hesitate to say without a bit more information concerning the condition and underlying pathology of the patient.

How old is the patient?  Have they recently had something like an atypical pneumonia?

I think, without knowing the answer to the above questions, that the specificity of the antibody MAY be between "anti-O" and "anti-Q".

I would suggest performing an indirect DL-test.

I may well be wrong, OF COURSE, but the attached may help.
Paroxysmal Cold Haemoglobinuria (PCH).pptx

Our cell saver machines are in the OR. Only surgery techs/personnel are allowed to use it.  I never seen one in action but I hear good things. Attached are some guidelines, best practices, and indications for use.  Good luck. 
 
 
cell_saver1.pdf cell_saver2.pdf Guideline_IntraoperativeCellSalvage.pdf Poster_Abstract_Fatreduction.pdf US-Cell-Saver-Elite-Owner's-Manual-120859-AC.pdf

PathLabTalk would like to wish all members celebrating their birthday today a happy birthday.
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I remember that birthdays was posted at the footer of the forums. I also miss this feature.  It is always nice to get a happy birthday wish on your birthday.

I live in Canada but work in the US. I have been med tech for a long time but I have worked primarily in blood bank for the last eleven years. I currently work for the Detroit Medical Center University Labs as the Blood Bank Group Leader at one of the hospitals. We are a busy hospital with a very busy emergency room and we see most of traumas in Detroit. We do open surgeries. We have an active labor and delivery as well as a neonatal ICU. We also have medical technology students who do their blood bank rotation in our lab.
I am married with 2 daughters. My oldest is married and has an eleven month old daughter. My youngest is finishing her journalism degree at Wayne State University and will be attending the University of Western Ontario in the Masters of Media Studies program starting in September.
Besides being a med tech, I am also a personal trainer with a small fitness business. I am one of the forum moderators here at Bloodbanktalk which is something that I enjoy doing. I am also a forum administrator for a fitness forum which sometimes requires a lot of my time but I enjoy doing this also. I am in the process of learning how to design my own website for my fitness business. After having said all that sometimes I look like this:zombie:.